Diamond-coated quartz crystal microbalance sensors: Challenges in high yield production and enhanced detection of ethanol and sars-cov-2 proteins
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: • Low-temperature MWCVD synthesis of porous and fully closed diamond films on QCM. • Double-sided diamond-QCM shows 12-fold enhancement in ethanol vapor sensitivity. • Single-sided diamond-QCM shows a 2-fold higher response for S-RBD protein detection. • Diamond-QCM demonstrates selective detection of S-RBD protein over N-protein. • Diamond-QCM achieves a 10% lower detection limit for S-RBD protein versus bare QCM. This study presents the technological progress in the deposition of diamond thin films on quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensors. The linear antenna microwave plasma chemical vapour deposition (CVD) technique effectively grows thin diamond films on QCM substrates (Dia-QCM) differently oriented on the substrate holder in the deposition chamber, resulting in single-sided and double-sided coated QCMs. Each of these coated QCMs offers a distinctive advantage for sensing applications. The double-sided coated QCM sensors exhibited the most effective performance in ethanol detection, demonstrating approx. a 3-fold and 12-fold higher response than single-sided diamond-coated and bare gold QCM sensors, respectively. Furthermore, the single-sided Dia-QCM aptasensors demonstrated superior performance compared to bare gold QCM sensors, with a 2-fold higher response and a lower detection limit for S-RBD protein (LOD Dia-QCM = 0.09 pg/mL vs. LOD Au-QCM = 0.10 pg/mL). In experiments conducted in human plasma, the Dia-QCM aptasensor demonstrated the ability to detect S-RBD protein at concentrations as low as 50 pg/mL, with high percentage recoveries. These results highlight the potential of linear antenna microwave plasma CVD for the mass production of advanced diamond-coated QCM sensors with different diamond film morphologies (porous, micro- or nanocrystalline) for various applications.
Source: Materials & Design
Institutions: Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, FZU - Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Technical University in Prague, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Centre of Biosciences of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Molecular Physiology and Genetics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences
Language: English
Subfield: Biomedical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,200
Funders: České Vysoké Učení Technické v Praze, Slovenská Akadémia Vied, Ministerstvo Školství, Mládeže a Tělovýchovy, Grantová Agentura České Republiky, Ministerstvo školstva, vedy, výskumu a športu Slovenskej republiky, Akademie Věd České Republiky, Narodowe Centrum Nauki, Vedecká Grantová Agentúra MŠVVaŠ SR a SAV, Agentúra Ministerstva Školstva, Vedy, Výskumu a Športu SR
Awards: G1511986093, G2395295508, Diagnostika onkologických ochorení pomocou aptasenzorov: vývoj a validácia, G4936091658, G7014402131, G7607657942, Detekcia tichých zabijakov: Stratégie založené na elektrochemických a QCM biosenzoroch na báze aptamérov pre rýchlu, jednoduchú a včasnú detekciu miRNA v diagnostike rakoviny, G8910020242, Heterogenous diamond biosensing nanoarchitectures: opto-electro-chemical interactions with antibody complexes, Nanodiamonds as selective protein traps to regulate disorders caused by aberrant FGF2 signaling
OpenAlex ID: W4404734190